Editing English Channel (section)

== Human history ==
<!-- unexplained bit of poetry {{Poemquote |quote=This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands.
|source= [[William Shakespeare]], ''[[Richard II (play)|Richard II]]'' (Act II, Scene 1)
}}
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The Channel is thought to have prevented [[Neanderthals]] from colonising Britain during the Last Interglacial/Eemian, though they returned to Britain during the Last Glacial Period when sea levels were lower.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wenban-Smith |first=Francis |date=September 2010 |title=M25 roadworks reveal earliest UK Neanderthal occupation at Dartford |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2451.2010.00766.x |journal=Geology Today |language=en |volume=26 |issue=5 |pages=175–179 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2451.2010.00766.x |bibcode=2010GeolT..26..175W |issn=0266-6979|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Channel has in historic times been both an easy entry for seafaring people and a key natural defence, halting invading armies while in conjunction with control of the North Sea allowing Britain to blockade the continent.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} The most significant failed invasion threats came when the Dutch and Belgian ports were held by a major continental power, e.g. from the [[Spanish Armada]] in 1588, [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]] during the [[Napoleonic Wars]], and [[Nazi Germany]] during [[World War II]]. Successful invasions include the [[Roman conquest of Britain]], the [[Norman Conquest]] in 1066 and the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688, while the concentration of excellent harbours in the Western Channel on Britain's south coast made possible the largest amphibious invasion in history, the [[Normandy Landings]] in 1944. Channel [[list of naval battles|naval battles]] include the [[Battle of the Downs]] (1639), [[Battle of Dover (1652)|Battle of Dover]] (1652), the [[Battle of Portland]] (1653) and the [[Battle of La Hougue]] (1692).

In more peaceful times, the Channel served as a link joining shared cultures and political structures, particularly the huge [[Angevin Empire]] from 1135 to 1217. For nearly a thousand years, the Channel also provided a link between the [[Modern Celts|Modern Celtic]] regions and languages of [[Cornwall]] and [[Brittany]]. Brittany was founded by [[Ancient Britons|Britons]] who fled [[Cornwall]] and [[Devon]] after Anglo-Saxon encroachment. In Brittany, there is a region known as "[[Cornouaille]]" (Cornwall) in French and "Kernev" in [[Breton language|Breton]].<ref>Cf. "Kernow", the Cornish for Cornwall.</ref> In ancient times there was also a "[[Domnonia]]" (Devon) in Brittany as well.

In [[Great Frost of 1683–84|February 1684]], ice formed on the sea in a belt {{Convert|4.8|km|mi|abbr=on}}  wide off the coast of [[Kent]] and {{Convert|3.2|km|mi|abbr=on}}  wide on the French side.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Flohn |first1=Hermann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0pAEI6AWLgC&pg=PA46 |title=The Climate of Europe, past, present, and future |last2=Fantechi |first2=Roberto |year=1984 |isbn=978-90-277-1745-0 |page=46|publisher=Springer }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Great Frost of 1683-4 |url=http://www.pastpresented.info/frost1683.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721231007/http://www.pastpresented.info/frost1683.htm |archive-date=21 July 2011 |access-date=5 December 2010 |publisher=www.pastpresented.info}}</ref>

=== Route to Britain ===
[[File:North sea languages 900.png|right|thumb|The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century around the North Sea. {{legend|#ff0000|[[Old West Norse#Old West Norse|Old West Norse]]}}{{legend|#ff8040|[[Old East Norse]]}}{{legend|#00ff00|other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility}}]]

Remnants of a [[Mesolithic]] boatyard have been found on the [[Isle of Wight]]. [[Wheat]] was traded across the Channel about 8,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Balter |first=Michael |date=26 February 2015 |title=DNA recovered from underwater British site may rewrite history of farming in Europe |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/dna-recovered-underwater-british-site-may-rewrite-history-farming-europe |journal=Science}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Larson |first=Greger |date=26 February 2015 |title=How wheat came to Britain |journal=Science |volume=347 |issue=6225 |pages=945–946 |bibcode=2015Sci...347..945L |doi=10.1126/science.aaa6113 |pmid=25722395 |s2cid=43627086}}</ref> "... Sophisticated social networks linked the [[Neolithic]] front in southern Europe to the [[Mesolithic]] peoples of northern Europe." The [[Ferriby Boats]], [[Hanson Log Boat]]s and the later [[Dover Bronze Age Boat]] could carry a substantial cross-Channel cargo.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Oliver |last2=Momber |first2=Garry |last3=Bates |first3=Richard |last4=Garwood |first4=Paul |date=27 February 2015 |title=Sedimentary DNA from a submerged site reveals wheat in the British Isles 8000 years ago |journal=Science |volume=347 |issue=6225 |pages=998–1001 |bibcode=2015Sci...347..998S |doi=10.1126/science.1261278 |pmid=25722413 |hdl-access=free |s2cid=1167101 |hdl=10454/9405}}</ref>

[[Diodorus Siculus]] and Pliny<ref>{{Cite web |title=History Compass |url=http://www.history-compass.com/images/store/HICO/chapters/523.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080307064122/http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/history/ |archive-date=7 March 2008 |access-date=27 April 2010 |publisher=History Compass}}</ref> both suggest trade between the rebel Celtic tribes of [[Armorica]] and [[Iron Age]] Britain flourished. In 55 BC [[Julius Caesar]] invaded, claiming that the Britons had aided the [[Veneti (Gaul)|Veneti]] against him the previous year. He was more successful in [[Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain|54 BC]], but Britain was not fully established as part of the [[Roman Empire]] until [[Aulus Plautius]]'s [[Roman conquest of Britain|43 AD invasion]]. A brisk and regular trade began between ports in Roman [[Gaul]] and those in Britain. This traffic continued until the [[end of Roman rule in Britain]] in 410 AD, after which the [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|early Anglo-Saxons]] left less clear historical records.

In the power vacuum left by the retreating Romans, the Germanic [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]], [[Saxons]], and [[Jutes]] began the next great migration across the North Sea. Having already been used as mercenaries in Britain by the Romans, many people from these tribes crossed during the [[Migration Period]], conquering and perhaps displacing the native [[Celt]]ic populations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Germany The migration period |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-58084/Germany |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620052057/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-58084/Germany |archive-date=20 June 2008 |access-date=24 July 2007}}</ref>

=== Norsemen and Normans ===
[[File:Hermitage St Helier Jersey.jpg|thumb|left|The Hermitage of [[Helier|St Helier]] lies in the bay off [[Saint Helier]] and is accessible on foot at low tide.]]

The attack on [[Lindisfarne]] in 793 is generally considered the beginning of the [[Viking Age]]. For the next 250&nbsp;years the Scandinavian raiders of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark dominated the North Sea, raiding monasteries, homes, and towns along the coast and along the rivers that ran inland. According to the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' they began to settle in Britain in 851. They continued to settle in the [[British Isles]] and the continent until around 1050, with some raids recorded along the channel coast of England, including at Wareham, Portland, near Weymouth and along the river Teign in Devon.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nick Attwood MA |title=The Holy Island of Lindisfarne – The Viking Attack |url=http://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/793/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110108090618/http://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/793/index.htm |archive-date=8 January 2011 |access-date=24 July 2007}}</ref>

The [[Duchy of Normandy|fiefdom of Normandy]] was created for the [[Viking]] leader [[Rollo of Normandy|Rollo]] (also known as Robert of Normandy). Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered [[vassal]]age to the king of the [[Western Francia|West Franks]] [[Charles the Simple]] through the [[Treaty of St.-Claire-sur-Epte]]. In exchange for his [[Homage (feudal)|homage]] and [[fealty]], Rollo legally gained the territory he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (i.e. "Northman") origins.

The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local [[Gallo-Romance languages|Gallo-Romance language]] and intermarried with the area's inhabitants and became the [[Normans]] – a [[Norman language|Norman French]]-speaking mixture of [[Scandinavia]]ns, [[Hiberno-Norse]], [[Orkney|Orcadians]], [[Danelaw|Anglo-Danish]], and indigenous [[Franks]] and [[Gauls]].

[[File:BayeuxTapestry39.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Landing in England scene from the [[Bayeux Tapestry]], depicting ships coming in and horses landing]]

Rollo's descendant [[William I of England|William, Duke of Normandy]], became king of England in 1066 in the [[Norman Conquest]] beginning with the [[Battle of Hastings]], while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants. In 1204, during the reign of [[John of England|King John]], mainland Normandy was taken from England by France under [[Philip II of France|Philip II]], while insular Normandy (the [[Channel Islands]]) remained under English control. In 1259, [[Henry III of England]] recognised the legality of French possession of mainland Normandy under the [[Treaty of Paris (1259)|Treaty of Paris]]. His successors, however, often fought to regain control of mainland Normandy.

With the rise of [[William the Conqueror]], the North Sea and Channel began to lose some of their importance. The new order oriented most of England and Scandinavia's trade south, toward the [[Mediterranean]] and the Orient.

Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy and other French possessions in 1801, the monarch of the United Kingdom retains the title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for [[Chausey]]) are [[Crown Dependencies]] of the [[The Crown|British Crown]]. Thus the [[Loyal toast]] in the Channel Islands is ''Le roi, notre Duc'' ("The King, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to ''not'' be the Duke of Normandy in regards of the French region of Normandy described herein, by virtue of the [[Treaty of Paris (1259)|Treaty of Paris of 1259]], the surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to [[Salic Law]] which excludes inheritance through female heirs.

French Normandy was occupied by English forces during the [[Hundred Years' War]] in 1346–1360 and again in 1415–1450.

=== England and Britain: Naval superpower ===
[[File:Elizabeth I Watching Defeat of Spanish Armada by an unknown artist, 16th century.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|left|The [[Spanish Armada]] off the English coast in 1588]]

From the reign of [[Elizabeth I]], English foreign policy concentrated on preventing invasion across the Channel by ensuring no major European power controlled the potential Dutch and Flemish invasion ports. Her climb to the pre-eminent [[sea power]] of the world began in 1588 as the attempted invasion of the [[Spanish Armada]] was defeated by the combination of outstanding naval tactics by the English and the Dutch under command of [[Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham]] with [[Francis Drake|Sir Francis Drake]] second in command, and the following stormy weather. Over the centuries the [[Royal Navy]] slowly grew to be the most powerful in the world.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

[[File:La bataille des Cadinaux en novembre 1759.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Battle of Quiberon Bay]] which ended the [[Planned French invasion of Britain (1759)|French invasion plans]] in 1759]]
The building of the [[British Empire]] was possible only because the [[Royal Navy]] eventually managed to exercise unquestioned control over the seas around Europe, especially the Channel and the North Sea. During the [[Seven Years' War]], France attempted to [[Planned French Invasion of Britain (1759)|launch an invasion of Britain]]. To achieve this France needed to gain control of the Channel for several weeks, but was thwarted following the British naval victory at the [[Battle of Quiberon Bay]] in 1759 and was unsuccessful (The last French landing on English soil being in 1690 with a raid on Teignmouth, although the last French raid on British soil was a raid on Fishguard, Wales in 1797).

Another significant challenge to British domination of the seas came during the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. The [[Battle of Trafalgar]] took place off the coast of Spain against a combined French and Spanish fleet and was won by Admiral [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Horatio Nelson]], ending [[Napoleon]]'s plans for a cross-Channel invasion and securing British dominance of the seas for over a century.

=== First World War ===
The exceptional strategic importance of the Channel as a tool for blockading was recognised by the First Sea Lord [[John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher|Admiral Fisher]] in the years before [[World War I]]. "Five keys lock up the world! Singapore, the Cape, [[Alexandria]], Gibraltar, Dover."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Geoffrey Miller |url=http://www.manorhouse.clara.net/book3/chapter2.htm |title=The Millstone: Chapter 2 |access-date=1 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716113342/http://www.manorhouse.clara.net/book3/chapter2.htm |archive-date=16 July 2011 |url-status=live}} quoting Fisher, ''Naval Necessities I'', p. 219</ref>  However, on 25 July 1909 [[Louis Blériot]] made the first Channel crossing from [[Calais]] to [[Dover]] in an aeroplane. Blériot's crossing signalled a change in the function of the Channel as a barrier-moat for England against foreign enemies.

Because the ''[[Kaiserliche Marine]]'' surface fleet could not match the British Grand Fleet, the Germans developed [[submarine warfare]], which was to become a far greater threat to Britain.  The [[Dover Patrol]],  set up just before the war started, escorted cross-Channel troopships and prevented submarines from sailing in the Channel, obliging them to travel to the Atlantic via the much longer route around Scotland.

On land, the [[Imperial German Army|German army]] attempted to capture French Channel ports in the [[Race to the Sea]] but although the trenches are often said to have stretched "from the frontier of Switzerland to the English Channel", they reached the coast at the North Sea.  Much of the British war effort in [[Flanders]] was a bloody but successful strategy to prevent the Germans reaching the Channel coast.

At the outset of the war, an attempt was made to block the path of [[U-boat]]s through the Dover Strait with [[naval mine]]fields.  By February 1915, this had been augmented by a {{convert|25|km|mi}} stretch of light steel netting called the [[Dover Barrage]], which it was hoped would ensnare submerged submarines. After initial success, the Germans learned how to pass through the barrage, aided by the unreliability of British mines.<ref>{{Cite web |title=First World War.com - Encyclopedia - The Dover Barrage |url=http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/doverbarrage.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918001536/http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/doverbarrage.htm |archive-date=18 September 2012 |access-date=21 September 2012 |website=www.firstworldwar.com}}</ref>  On 31 January 1917, the Germans resumed [[unrestricted submarine warfare]] leading to dire Admiralty predictions that submarines would defeat Britain by November,<ref>{{Cite web |title=U-Boat warfare at the Atlantic during World War I |url=http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww1_uboat.shtml |archive-url=https://archive.today/20080310175335/http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww1_uboat.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 March 2008 |access-date=1 November 2008 |publisher=German Notes }}</ref> the most dangerous situation Britain faced in either world war.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cundy |first=Alyssa |date=2015 |title=A "Weapon of Starvation": The Politics, Propaganda, and Morality of Britain's Hunger Blockade of Germany, 1914-1919 |url=https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2863&context=etd |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612192502/https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2863&context=etd |archive-date=12 June 2023 |access-date=June 22, 2023}}</ref>

The [[Battle of Passchendaele]] in 1917 was fought to reduce the threat by capturing the submarine bases on the Belgian coast, though it was the introduction of [[convoy]]s and not capture of the bases that averted defeat.  In April 1918 the Dover Patrol carried out the [[Zeebrugge Raid]] against the U-boat bases.  During 1917, the Dover Barrage was re-sited with improved mines and more effective nets, aided by regular patrols by small warships equipped with powerful searchlights.  A German attack on these vessels resulted in the [[Battle of Dover Strait (1917)|Battle of Dover Strait in 1917]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grant |first=Robert M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E_TE_ARPXdMC&q=%22Dover+Barrage%22+1917&pg=PA74 |title=U-Boats Destroyed: The Effect of Anti-Submarine Warfare 1914–1918 |publisher=Periscope Publishing Ltd |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-904381-00-6 |pages=74–75}}</ref>  A much more ambitious attempt to improve the barrage, by installing eight massive concrete towers across the strait was called the [[Admiralty M-N Scheme]] but only two towers were nearing completion at the end of the war and the project was abandoned.<ref>{{Cite web |title=''Black Jack'' (Quarterly Magazine Southampton Branch World Ship Society) Issue No: 152 Autumn 2009: (p.6) SHOREHAM TOWERS – One of the Admiralty's greatest engineering secrets, Reproduced from Engineering & Technology IET Magazine May 2009 |url=http://www.sotonwss.org.uk/blackjack/Sep09BJ.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513143827/http://www.sotonwss.org.uk/blackjack/Sep09BJ.pdf |archive-date=13 May 2013 |access-date=21 September 2012}}</ref>

The naval blockade in the Channel and North Sea was one of the decisive factors in the German defeat in 1918.<ref>{{Cite web |title=His Imperial German Majesty's U-boats in WWI: 6. Finale |url=http://uboat.net/history/wwi/part6.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620084637/http://uboat.net/history/wwi/part6.htm |archive-date=20 June 2010 |access-date=13 September 2009 |publisher=uboat.net}}</ref>

=== Second World War ===
[[File:Battle of Britain map.svg|thumb|right|British radar facilities during the [[Battle of Britain]] 1940]]

During the [[World War II|Second World War]], naval activity in the [[European Theatre of World War II|European theatre]] was primarily [[Battle of the Atlantic|limited to the Atlantic]]. During the [[Battle of France]] in May 1940, the [[Wehrmacht|German forces]] succeeded in capturing both [[Battle of Boulogne (1940)|Boulogne]] and [[Siege of Calais (1940)|Calais]], thereby threatening the line of retreat for the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|British Expeditionary Force]]. By a combination of hard fighting and German indecision, the port of [[Dunkirk]] was kept open allowing 338,000 Allied troops to be evacuated in [[Operation Dynamo]]. More than 11,000 were evacuated from [[Le Havre]] during [[Operation Cycle]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Operation Cycle, the evacuation from Havre, 10-13 June 1940 |url=http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/operation_cycle.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423063550/http://historyofwar.org/articles/operation_cycle.html |archive-date=23 April 2015 |access-date=2 July 2014}}</ref> and a further 192,000 were evacuated from ports further down the coast in [[Operation Aerial]] in June 1940.<ref>[http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/operation_aerial.html Operation Aerial, the evacuation from north western France, 15–25 June 1940] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016033459/http://historyofwar.org/articles/operation_aerial.html |date=16 October 2012 }}. Historyofwar.org. Retrieved on 29 July 2013.</ref> The early stages of the [[Battle of Britain]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fact File: Battle of Britain |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1057330.shtml?sectionId=2&articleId=1057330 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128175240/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1057330.shtml?sectionId=2&articleId=1057330 |archive-date=28 January 2012 |access-date=1 November 2008 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> featured German air attacks on Channel shipping and ports; despite these early successes against shipping the Germans did not win the [[air supremacy]] necessary for [[Operation Sealion]], the projected cross-Channel invasion.

The Channel subsequently became the stage for an intensive coastal war, featuring submarines, [[minesweeper (ship)|minesweepers]], and [[Fast Attack Craft]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Campaigns of World War II |first=Naval History Homepage |title=Atlantic, WW2, U-boats, convoys, OA, OB, SL, HX, HG, Halifax, RCN ... |url=http://www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsStartEurope.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113180911/http://www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsStartEurope.htm |archive-date=13 January 2011 |access-date=24 July 2007}}</ref>

The narrow waters of the Channel were considered too dangerous for major warships until the [[Normandy Landings]] with the exception, for the German [[Kriegsmarine]], of the [[Channel Dash]] (Operation Cerberus) in February 1942, and this required the support of the [[Luftwaffe]] in [[Operation Donnerkeil|Operation Thunderbolt]].

[[File:Batterie Les Longues sur Mer - panoramio.jpg|thumb|150 mm Second World War German gun emplacement in Normandy]]
[[File:German World War II tower Jersey.jpg|thumb|As part of the [[Atlantic Wall]], between 1940 and 1945 the occupying [[Wehrmacht|German forces]] and the [[Organisation Todt]] constructed fortifications round the coasts of the Channel Islands, such as this observation tower at Les Landes, Jersey.]]
[[Dieppe, Seine-Maritime|Dieppe]] was the site of an ill-fated [[Dieppe Raid]] by Canadian and British armed forces. More successful was the later [[Operation Overlord]] ([[D-Day]]), a massive invasion of [[Nazi Germany|German]]-occupied France by [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] troops. [[Caen]], [[Cherbourg-en-Cotentin|Cherbourg]], [[Carentan]], [[Falaise, Calvados|Falaise]] and other Norman towns endured many casualties in the fight for the province, which continued until the closing of the so-called [[Falaise pocket|Falaise gap]] between [[Chambois, Orne|Chambois]] and [[Montormel]], then liberation of [[Le Havre]].

The Channel Islands were the only part of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] [[German occupation of the Channel Islands|occupied by Germany]] (excepting the part of [[Egypt]] occupied by the [[Afrika Korps]] at the time of the [[Second Battle of El Alamein]], which was a protectorate and not part of the Commonwealth). The German occupation of 1940–1945 was harsh, with some island residents being taken for [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|slave labour]] on the Continent; native Jews sent to [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]]; [[partisan (military)|partisan]] resistance and retribution; accusations of [[collaborationism|collaboration]]; and slave labour (primarily Russians and eastern Europeans) being brought to the islands to build fortifications.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Occupation Memorial HTML Library |url=http://www.thisisjersey.co.uk/hmd/html/organisationtodt.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160114235621/http://www.thisisjersey.co.uk/hmd/html/organisationtodt.html |archive-date=14 January 2016 |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=Thisisjersey.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=4 May 2013 |title=World War II: British Channel Islands--German Fortifications (1941-43) |url=http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/cou/eng/ci/w2b-cif.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305194320/http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/cou/eng/ci/w2b-cif.html |archive-date=5 March 2016 |access-date=6 September 2018 |publisher=Historical Boys' Clothing}}</ref> The [[Royal Navy]] blockaded the islands from time to time, particularly following the [[Invasion of Normandy|liberation of mainland Normandy]] in 1944. Intense negotiations resulted in some [[Red Cross]] humanitarian aid, but there was considerable hunger and privation during the occupation, particularly in the final months, when the population was close to starvation. The German troops on the islands surrendered on 9 May 1945, a day after the final surrender in mainland Europe.

=== English Channel migrant crossings (2018–present)===
{{Main|English Channel migrant crossings (2018–present)}}
[[File:Arrivals by month each year on small boats via the English Channel.svg|thumb|Arrivals by month each year on small boats via the English Channel]]
There is significant public concern in the UK about illegal immigrants coming on small boats from France. Since 2018, the English Channel has seen a major increase in number of crossing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-08 |title=Why are migrants in small boats a heated issue in the UK? |url=https://apnews.com/article/uk-migrants-channel-asylum-human-rights-braverman-497fc05aa4056bc3fdb2b5ba381931c1 |access-date=2023-06-22 |website=AP NEWS |language=en}}</ref>